


Offers

by AnnieVH



Series: Behind Closed Doors [42]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Abusive Relationship, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Bad Decisions, F/M, Gen, Rumbelle - Freeform, Verbal Abuse, phone cals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 11:15:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4827032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieVH/pseuds/AnnieVH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle calls with an excuse. Rumple makes everything worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Offers

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings** : Verbal abuse.  
>  **Beta** : Maddiebonanafana, as always, kept me from embarrassing myself with bad grammar and bad decisions.

The word that was looping inside Rumple’s head tonight was  _pitiful_. It was suffocating everything else, including the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the occasional thought of New York that tried to sooth him. The bruise on his arm didn’t bother him all that much and it would fade ( _God, please, let it fade before Neal sees it_ ) in a couple of days. Milah hadn’t held on too strongly. But that word, it wouldn’t quiet down.

Pitiful.

He did feel pitiful.

A grown man, tucked into bed early because he didn’t want to go downstairs and face his wife. She hadn’t acknowledged him since he’d got home, and hadn’t bothered to check if he wanted to join her for dinner, which he did not. Milah only talked to him after a fight that bad to pick up where they had left, or to apologize tearfully about what a horrible person she was – and she wouldn’t let go until Rumple took her to bed and proved he wasn’t mad at her anymore.

Pitiful. She had chosen her words wisely. All of them.

She knew just how to use them well too.

“No wonder Neal worries so much. You’re so helpless. That’s not how a man should behave.”

No, she was right. Men don’t just sit on the floor and wait for their wives to be done screaming, or beg for them to let go of their arm because it hurt. Now he was cowering in his bed, praying to god that the mark of her grip around his arm would fade and that his wife wouldn’t come into his bed asking for sex in the middle of the night because he didn’t want to deal with having to tell her no.

 _I should stay home_ , he thought, finally giving in to her pressure. _I should stay home and try to fix this. Everything will be much better in a week or two if we just sit down and talk about it_.

Rumple was about to get up and go downstairs to announce his decision when the phone rang.

He didn’t have to look at the ID to know who it was. She was actually late for the follow up call.

“I feel better,” he answered, straining to put some cheerfulness into his voice.

Belle almost laughed. “And good evening to you too.”

“I thought I should save you time.”

“I appreciate it. Your voice does sound better.”

Rumple nodded to no one. “Like you said, I just needed to get some rest.”

“Yes,” she said, sounding doubtful, but unwilling to push the subject. Rumple was grateful for that. If she pressed, he might cave in and tell her the whole thing, and that was the last thing he needed. “I’m not calling just to see how you’re doing. I was wondering if you could do me a favor?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I know the timing is not the best, and if you can’t, it’s fine.”

“It’s alright. I can manage.”

“And of course, I wouldn’t want to get in the-”

“Belle,” he called her, more firmly. “I already said yes.”

She paused her clearly rehearsed speech, thrown off for a moment. “Yes… yes, you did. It’s for Neal’s birthday. I was wondering if you could give him my present.”

Rumple opened his mouth to say he wouldn’t be going to New York, but then he understood what her words meant and frowned.

“He told me he would invite you,” he asked.

“He did, but I don’t think I’ll be able to attend.”

“Regina didn’t give you the weekend off,” he concluded, sounding ready to phone Regina and demand she give Belle some well deserved vacations. “You’ve been slaving yourself in this library for too long. You deserve a weekend off.”

“No, I can have the weekend off. It’s just too expensive. Between the bus and accommodations, it’s way over my budget for a last minute trip. Maybe next month I can pay him a visit.”

“I could drive you.”

Belle went quiet again.

Rumple gripped the cellphone in his hand. What had he just offered her?

“Are you serious?” she finally asked.

“Why not?”

 _Because you are not going_ , he answered himself.  _You are staying home and you are fixing things with Milah_.

“You are spending the whole week, aren’t you?” Belle asked, offering him the perfect excuse to take back his offer. “I still need to get back on Monday.”

“Buy a bus ticket back,” he suggested, before his fears had time to silence him again. “I don’t think it will blow a hole in your budget.”

“I still can’t afford a hotel.”

“Stay with us. They have an extra room, but I always sleep in Henry’s, so that’s solved.”

“They’d mind.”

“They would not. Bae really wants you there. He’s told me so many times.”

“But…”

Rumple waited for her to come up with something. There was a very loud part of his mind that was begging for a way out, and this had to be it.

“But you’d be stuck with me in a car for eight hours.  _And_ the whole weekend. Do you really want to take that chance?”

He couldn’t help but sound confused. “Because you are such an unpleasant person?”

“It’s different to see me every other day and get stuck with me,” she argued.

“Bring some books. If it comes to it, you’ll read while I drive. Or we’ll be in complete, uncomfortable silence. And once we’re there, you’ll probably spend the whole day site-seeing while Henry keeps me occupied. I doubt we’ll spend much time together.”

Belle thought about it again. When she spoke, she finally admitted towhat was bothering her. “Rumple, I don’t want to complicate things with Milah.”

“You won’t,” he said, and his voice sounded so honest that he would have believed it himself. “Would you like a ride?”

She hesitated, but answered, “If it isn’t too much trouble.”

“Not at all.”

“Thank you, Rumple,” she said. Then, she confessed, “Honestly, I was dying to go to New York.”

“Well, now you’re going.”

“I’ll pick some good books,” Belle promised. “And good music. Do you like Van Halen?”

“I… trust your judgment.”

“New York,” she said, finally allowing herself to beam with happiness. “I cannot believe it.  _New York_!”

“I find it to be incredibly overrated.”

Belle laughed.

“Thank you, Rumple,  _really_.”

“Not a problem.”

He hung up with a smile.

It crumbled slowly, as the weight of what he had done finally came to him.

If Milah found out, she was going to  _kill_  him.

**Author's Note:**

> This will probably be it for BCD until October. I have two other verses (and two other blogs) that have been seriously neglected and that I want to work on. However, the next fic is obviously going to be a ROAD TRIP! But instead of telling one whole story, I want to do 100-500 words drabbles with random moments. Would anybody like to send some prompts for very short fics?


End file.
